Law and Larai: The (De)Judicialisation of Subaltern Resistance in West Bengal

Abstract

This article examines the dynamics of judicialisation and dejudicialisation of subaltern resistance in the context of a prolonged anti-land acquisition struggle in Singur in the Indian state of West Bengal. Taking its point of departure in a detailed, chronological ethnographic account of the Singur movement and its shifting engagement with the language and institutions of law, the article demonstrates how the local resistance to a land acquisition for the purpose of setting up a new automobile factory oscillated strategically back and forth between a multitude of sites of contestation. This strategic oscillation was, in turn, highly sensitive to the broader context in which the movement was carried out, and to the shifting terrain of the local and regional political landscape in particular. The attractiveness of invoking the language and institutions of law as part of their struggle therefore significantly depended on the attractiveness of other modalities of resistance at a given moment. In conclusion, the article uses the Singur case to critically interrogate and rethink the seminal work of Partha Chatterjee on political society and the politics of the governed in post-colonial India.     

The Transition to 'New' Social Democracy: The Role of Capitalism, Representation and (Hampered) Contestation

This article argues that existing accounts of the transformation from 'traditional' to 'new' social democracy has thus far only identified the contextual changes that have prompted this move. In doing so, they have failed to account for the motives of social democratic party actors in undertaking the transition to 'new' social democracy in response to those changes. The article draws upon a critical realist method, and Marxist and anti-representational theories, to conceptualise 'traditional' social democratic party relations as suffering from tensions between constituents' demands for decommodification, the attempt by party elites to contain (and thereby 'represent') those demands and the (in)compatibility of this process of containment with the need to recommodify social relations in the light of periodic crises in contemporary capitalism. It argues that these tensions explain the attempt by party elites to promote the move towards 'new' social democracy, the (eventual) acquiescence of party constituents to those attempts and the subsequent exit from social democratic constituencies which has resulted. The argument is made with reference to the British Labour Party and Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).     

Violent Punjab,quiescent Bengal,and the partition of India

Why did the Punjab bear the brunt of the mass violence and the migration that accompanied the partition of India? This paper makes the case for analytical eclecticism by showing that the following three explanations – centred respectively on democratisation, nationalism, and ideas; the commitment problem; and the security dilemma – account for the violence/migration in the different stages in the run-up to the partition of India. Instead of arguing that ‘everything mattered’, this paper elucidates the complex causality at work by demonstrating how these factors interacted with one another during the different stages leading to India’s partition.     

The (Il)legitimacy of EU state building: local support and contention in Kosovo

This article investigates legitimacy of EU state building and conflict resolution as a continuous and collective process through which local stakeholders, as the direct bearers of EU policies, ascribe meaning and support for the EU actors and actions on the ground. Contrary to the static and narrow understanding of legitimacy in the EU literature, the article offers a dynamic framework of legitimacy based on two main aspects: (i) sources of legitimacy (input and output) and (ii) objects of legitimacy (diffuse and specific support) in order to trace the complicated relationship between the EU and different local groups (the government, parliamentary opposition, local NGOs and public opinion) in Kosovo. The main argument is that the EU fails to generate local consent and faces a worsening erosion of support in Kosovo due to the limited participation of local stakeholders into the EU-promoted political decision-making structures and the contested ability of the EU to foster outcomes that have salience for local actors.     

Visiting The Future: Australian (Fellow-) Travellers in Soviet Russia

A significant number of Australian testimonies still awaiting systematic and comprehensive study bear witness to the Soviet journeys of many key figures of the Left and help to define and characterise the successive phases of the encounter between 'progressive' Australia and the USSR. The article provides a chronological survey and detailed analysis of the most significant of these accounts from the early 1920s to the late 1960s, including Katharine Susannah Prichard's he Real Russia , Frank Hardy's Journey to the Future and Manning Clark's Meeting Soviet Man . Contextualising these accounts with reference to the contemporary situation in both countries, the paper considers the impact of these perceptions of Russia on Australian political and cultural life.     

Studies in War-time Organisation: (4) The Union's Supply Effort

South Africa's war-time supply problems have led to a spectacularsuccess for her infant industry, under Government direction,as this note by the editor of "South Africa" explains. As tothe future General Smuts has said (at Bloemfontein last December):"It will be the policy of the Government as early as possibleto restore full freedom to private enterprise, unhampered bycontrols, except in exceptional cases called for by overallinterest."     

Public Discourse of (De)legitimation: The Case of South Estonian Language

This paper focuses on two different argumentative strategies for dealing with a regional variety of Estonian, one of which may discourage the use of South Estonian in favor of Estonian, while another legitimates the lesser-used regional variety. These argumentative strategies are studied by critical discourse analysis (CDA) of six articles in Estonian language newspapers and magazines published in 2004–2005. The use of South Estonian is discouraged by presenting real or imagined threats that it will undermine Estonian. This discourse also parallels the Estonian-Russian majority-minority discourse of recent years by employing zero-sum arguments of the Estonian language losing to Russian as a consequence of the recognition of South Estonian. Language ideologies, which also construct some varieties worthier than others, re-enforce an essentialist representation of separate languages. This representation will work toward suppressing linguistic variation.     

The Rise (and Frequent Fall) of Evangelical Politicians: Organization,Theology, and Church Politics

Latin American evangelicals have become a common presence in legislative politics. Brazil exemplifies the potential clout of evangelical legislators and a troubling tendency toward political corruption. This article explains the quality of evangelical interest representation by focusing on church organization and theology, arguing that evangelicals approach electoral politics via three different modes: rejection; participation as individual, politically engaged believers; and engagement as church corporate project. While individual participation is unrelated to political corruption, the corporate model fosters machine politics, characterized in Brazil by resource‐based politics, narrow voter bases, and frequent party switching. We link these characteristics to evangelical involvement in two corruption scandals that occurred during the administration of President Lula da Silva. The analysis shows the central role of evangelical organization and theology in shaping interest representation and suggests future duplication of the church‐as‐political‐machine model, particularly where the “Prosperity Theology” variant of pentecostalism is strong.     

The Business of Peace: Raiding and Peace Work along the Kenya-Uganda Border (Part II)

Peace work is big business along the Kenya–Uganda border.Each year, new groups are created thanks to the generosity ofmajor donors while others disappear due to corruption and mismanagement.This cycle has continued for decades and, despite an absenceof tangible results, millions of dollars continue to flow intothe bank accounts of peace groups in the North Rift. As thefirst part of this article suggests, the focus on the so-called‘root causes’ of violence may well be responsiblefor the dismal performance of the peace industry. However, thebehaviour of peace NGOs in the field has been appalling. Peacemeetings are often only held so NGOs can display an engagementwith the conflict, despite the dangers created by such events.Other groups are dominated by politicians who use money earmarkedfor peace work to fund their political ambitions. Better monitoringis the obvious solution, but local groups have been able toavoid this by exaggerating the security risks of visiting theregion. Others argue that offloading peace work responsibilitiesto CBOs might lead to better results, but in the highly ethnicizedNorth Rift smaller groups are rarely able to transcend theirlocal roots. This article concludes that the peace industryis deeply flawed, and requires a complete overhaul in orderto have a beneficial impact on the region.